Tyler Island residents can return home, but must watch for future evacuation orders

Crews work on patching a leaky levee at Tyler Island

​At Tyler Island, crews were working frantically Tuesday to patch a leaky levee in the hopes of saving around 20 homes from being inundated.

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​At Tyler Island, crews were working frantically Tuesday to patch a leaky levee in the hopes of saving around 20 homes from being inundated.

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Tyler Island residents can return home, but should remain on alert for future evacuation notices, the Sacramento County Office of Emergency Services announced Wednesday.

Crews have been working around the clock to shore up a damaged levee on the Delta island south of Walnut Grove. Repairs appear to be working, but the true test will be the next storm, officials said in a press release.

On Tuesday, a crane was scooping stone from a barge to the inside of the levee, where workers on bulldozers were working to fill in the gap. Crews were planning to use two more barges of stone and two of dirt to finish the repairs, said Steve Mello, a trustee of the reclamation district serving Tyler Island.

Levee patrols found a crater in the inside levee wall on Monday. Mello was examining the trouble spot when it suddenly got much worse, he said. By the time the levee stopped crumbling, much of a gravel road was gone. No water came through, but officials feared an imminent collapse and evacuated residents from the 20 or so homes in the agricultural tract.